Because HIS AT NIGHT went through such repeated and arduous rewrites after it had been copy edited, I decided to hire an outside copy editor myself, just for quality assurance. Tiffany Yates, a professional freelance copy editor who has worked with many of the New York publishing houses who also happens to be a member of my local RWA chapter, proved a totally awesome choice.

Her queries, suggestions, and story advice were spot on. Which meant, by the time final galleys came, and changes had to be handwritten in the margins, I made if not substantial then at least noticeable changes to the manuscript. It killed me. I find final galleys nerve-wracking as such, to make so many changes–every page almost–oh, Lord have mercy.

In the months after that, I wanted nothing to do with the book. Even when I was at the RT Convention admiring the finished copies, I still couldn’t bear to crack the book open. Beth Kery, whom I met through Julie James, suggested that I was having mini-PTSD flashbacks. And she was right.

But since making the book trailer required consulting the manuscript, last Monday I flipped open HIS AT NIGHT at about a few chapters in. I began with a lot of trepidation, but soon I started enjoying myself. With just the usual breaks to pick up Junior Kidlet and hold him captive until homework is done, I read the book all the way through to the end that same day.

Phew. What a relief. End of mini-PTSD.

And here, without further ado, the book trailer:

Squee.  This is such a gorgeous cover.  Please click on the image to see all the details.   Full of food, yum, yum, yum.  Spices at the top:  dried red chilies, star anise, vanilla beans, and I think those are nutmegs.  And on the bottom, piles of chocolate and berries.  Ahhh.  Nom nom nom.

I love the warm palette.  I love the scale.  I love the title–which I think means Forbidden Fruit.  I love everything about it.  The only possible detail that can better this cover would be if there were a few madeleines sitting on that scale!

The best cover of my career.

Update:

And Quinta Essência, my Portuguese publisher, made these matching magnetic bookmarks to go with it.  Now suddenly I can’t wait to visit Portugal.    The book comes out April 28th.

Old-school, ain’t it?    Love all that pink and lavender.

Updated:

And then of course, doing a little reading on the backlog of Meredith’s twitter, I discovered some other foreign covers for Duke.

First up, Japanese version, which looks like it is called Love Like the Sun’s Blaze.  Which works, consider the Subcontinent setting.

And now my fave, the French cover, titled Fever in Delhi–love!–which is just gorgeous.

Ah, foreign covers, nothing better.

The provenance of the image, according to the info at the back of the book, was Shutterstock, a stock image website.  By going to Shutterstock and typing in “proposal”–since that’s what the man looks like he’s doing, though it’s also possible he’s a Regency Jesse James begging forgiveness, judging by the expression on her face–I found the image.  But the only information that came with the image is that it is an illustration circa 1830.  (And it was mislabeled as Victorian.  But to be perfectly fair it’s hard to know what to call those years post-Regency and before Victoria’s ascent to the throne.)

So, art history majors and art lovers, please ride to my rescue once more.  (Last time it was Seton who correctly identified the regular Spanish cover as a Tissot painting.)

—-

And a word on RITA® nominations, which were announced yesterday. While I’m deeply honored that NOT QUITE A HUSBAND received a nod, I am completely bewildered that Meredith has again been overlooked. Of course I’m partial, but I’m hardly alone in my opinion that Meredith is one of the greatest talents the genre has ever known. And her two 2009 books were two of the finest historical romances to be published that year or any year.  So feel free to commiserate with me.

It was an overhaul again–HIS AT NIGHT, that is. One of those days I’d love to have only revisions but so far it’s been overhaul after overhaul. It’s still not finished yet, but it’s getting there and of course it was worth it.

Heard briefly from my fellow blogger Meredith at the end of October. She is superbusy in India but will hopefully be able to breathe easier soon. We miss you, Meredith.

And now onto the covers.

First up, German PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS.  I have seen some German covers before–I think the Smart Bitches fugged one Laura Kinsale cover that was spectacularly clashingly purple and pink or some such hot mess.  And I wanted one of those:  Every historical romance writer should have an old-skool cover.  But I got a perfectly tasteful one instead.  A Regency, which totally cracks me up, since I write about 90 years later.  My German editor was apologetic for the wrong hair color on the hero, as apparently publishing houses there do not have a huge pool of covers from which to choose.  The title translates into “An Almost Perfect Marriage.”

The Thai cover for NOT QUITE A HUSBAND had me jazzed.  It’s my first landscape cover.  Folks, I’ve arrived!    The mountains on the cover look more like the north of Spain than the Himalayas, but it is very lovely indeed.  (And let’s face it, the Everest brings to mind oxygen deprivation and chilblains rather than passion’s undying flame.)  (Hmm, passion’s undying flame.  I think my dream job would have been to write blurbs for romances in the seventies and early eighties.)

And if I were a bestselling author, as is alleged on this cover, I need to know. 

Here it is!

The art department will be working to make the dress pop more from background.  I asked for my usual corrections (longer fingers and less boob on the hero).  And then, making my agent laugh her head off, I asked for a daintier foot on the heroine.

But other than those minor quibbles, I love this  cover.  Love the color and the flounces on her dress.  Love that there is more ladyback and less mantitty.   Besides, this cover continues the tradition of putting my heroine in a dress she never wears in the book. 

When I get the final cover, we’ll do a side-by-side (or more likely a top-by-bottom) comparison to see if I get my wishes.

And in other news, the release date for HIS AT NIGHT is now May 25, 2010.

Updates below the fold. 

Update 1:

The art department works fast. I have the revised cover with the higher contrast.  The heroine now has a fabulously smooth and un-stout foot. And the hero more stubbles, which I’d also asked for.  Don’t see that much difference in the length of his fingers, but I can live with that.

I approve. 

Though of course now that her foot is lovely, my Anna Wintour gaze of unrelenting criticism has landed on the heroine’s back.  My editor concurs that it needs further smoothing.  So now we await the next round of photo-shopping.

(After going through the cover process a few times, I have a certain sympathy for the editors of the glossy magazines and the art directors of advertising shoots.  You should have heard the numerous complaints I made about the first version of DELICIOUS’s cover; I was unhappy with the model from nose to hip.  I even said aloud to my editor whether I wasn’t part of the problem perpetuating the illusion of the perfect body with my demands for beautiful, smooth everything.

But then on the other side is the need to present a perfect–or as perfect as possible–image for a product we need to sell.  Sigh.)

Update 2:

And voila, back is smooooooooooooooth. 

I have to say, I’m glad to see a little meat on her bones, especially since I gave her weight as nine-and-half stones.  Not heavy, but not featherweight either.

And I totally dig this one for PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS.

You can’t tell me that’s not Monica Bellucci in mirror. 

French PA drops October 7.

So I’ll just post a video of Meredith I stumbled across on YouTube last week.

As you can see, her photos don’t do her justice and she is disgustingly gorgeous in person.  Now time for everyone to run out and get WRITTEN ON YOUR SKIN!

Meredith has a deadline in August.  And so do I, since 10 days ago when my agent emailed and said she wanted the first draft of the next tour-de-force done by August 1.  LOL, guess no-matter how much I deny being in the shitty-first-draft camp, I’ve been unmistakably tainted by my undeniably shitty first drafts.

Had things been different we’d hold a much grander celebration.  But now we’ll just toss this little interview out and call it a release party.  Enjoy!

You have said on this blog that you brainstorm to blaring Top 40 hits on the radio. Can you give me some examples of songs that have helped Bound by Your Touch and Written on Your Skin take shape?

I knew that was going to be a dangerous confession! In many cases, the lyrics are very simple, even trite. But when they touch off an image or a vibe that brings alive some aspect of the characters’ relationship, they become profoundly important to my brainstorming.

With Bound by Your Touch I was particularly struck by “Eyes Open,” by Snow Patrol. The lyrics brought to life, for me, how James inhabits the wreck he has made of his life — the numbness he courts to get through his days, the anger he represses beneath his easy, freewheeling charm (“All this feels strange and untrue… My bones ache; my skin feels cold… The anger swells in my guts and I won’t feel these slices and cuts”). They also capture how central Lydia becomes to his journey toward redemption. He desperately needs to see himself clearly, and that only happens for him when he sees himself through her eyes (“I want so much to open your eyes because I need you to look into mine… “). The lyrics also seem to capture how his redemption ultimately becomes her path to freedom as well (“Get up, get out, get away from these liars, because they don’t get your soul or your fire / Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine, and we’ll walk from this dark room for the last time / Every minute from this minute now, we can do what we like anywhere…”).

So, on my playlist, this would be a “James” song.

With Written on Your Skin, the most influential bit of music wasn’t even a whole song — it was the fiddle solo that comes about two and a half minutes into Dave Matthews’ “Crush.” Seriously — whenever I was stuck, I would listen to that thirty second snippet. It’s funny; listening to it now, in order to answer your question, I can’t understand any longer what I found so inspiring. But I recall being enchanted by how its ecstatic and dramatic quality was leavened by hints of humor. It got me into the headspace of the power play between Mina and Phin, which is certainly dramatic but also, occasionally, very funny.

And here’s the mildly embarrassing part of this answer: another song I listened to quite often when writing Written on Your Skin was Britney Spears’s “Circus.” Mina, the heroine, is a force, and this song is about a woman under pressure (“All eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus”), who rises to the challenges thrown at her, and demands that anyone who wants her attention earn it the hard way (“Don’t stand there watching me, follow me, show me what you can do”). Mina, of course, has never met someone who can follow her, much less someone who can beat her at her own game. Until, of course, she meets Phin.

I have to girdle myself to do my research. But you, you like history. You would read primary sources even if you don’t have a book to research. What kind of historical readings do you enjoy the most?

I find travelogues immensely interesting. Judging by what I can find in my university library (and on Google books as well), they were greatly in vogue throughout the Victorian period. Since the authors are generally foreigners to the land about which they’re writing, they end up documenting the social scene and the local mores and everyday customs, all the little things that they would never think to remark on with regard to their own society. Victorian-era travelogues written by Americans visiting England are hugely useful for this reason.

My favorite sorts of travelogue are those that were written and initially published for a limited audience of family and friends; they’re chatty and personable, and often pair fabulous descriptions of various cities and countries with bits of gossip and social commentary about influential figures of the day.

You have written both damaged heroes (Duke of Shadows, Written on Your Skin) and roguish, golden-boy heroes (Bound by Your Touch). Which one do you enjoy better? Or do you just like to alternate them to keep things interesting?

Oh, I think James (Bound by Your Touch) is fairly well damaged, too. Certainly he’s better at hiding it — from himself as well as others. That fabulous sense of humor makes his scars a bit more difficult to spot.
I can’t really imagine writing a perfectly well-adjusted hero. I’m sure I will one day write a hero who *seems* perfectly well-adjusted,but ultimately I find my characters’ flaws more interesting than their talents. And I find it particularly interesting when their talents are inextricably linked with their flaws — as James’s humor and charm are.

Your two 2009 releases are both set during the 1880s, late Victorian, so to speak. The Victorian reputation in pop culture is the cover-the-piano-leg prudishness. But prudishness was largely a phenomenon of the Victorian middle class. The upper class were a rather naughty bunch–upon whom the middle class frowned mightily, I might add. In another one of your interviews I’d read, you mention that you’d come across “descriptions of parlor games played during country weekends that, let’s just say, you wouldn’t want your teenage daughter playing with her friends.” Inquiring minds want to know. What kind of parlor games are we talking about, exactly?

So, the upper crust played a lot of intellectual parlor games — freestyle poetry or charades, for instance. But they also played rather more physical games, which many of us might recognize from childhood: Blind Man’s Bluff, Sardines (hide-and-seek in which only one person hides; as others find this person, they must squeeze in to hide with him/her), and various “Sit on me” games, like Squeak Piggy Squeak.
Have you played any of these games since you turned sixteen or so? Probably not. Why not? Because piling into closets together, groping each other, or sitting on each other becomes rather more risque once you hit puberty.
Now think of a whole lot of adults playing these games after a night of wine and champagne, in a dark, sprawling country house in the middle of nowhere. Good, clean fun… no?

Your 2010 release is currently titled Wicked Becomes You. Along with Bound by Your Touch and Written on Your Skin, they are a trifecta of total triumphs as far as titles go. Who came up with those titles, you, your editor, or the marketing team at your publishing house? Are there any interesting stories behind those titles?

Yep, they were all my suggestions. Generally, I come up with a list of possible titles for each book, submit it to my editor and agent, and we all confer. (What this pithy summary elides is the many days I spend ripping my hair out while brainstorming titles. Some of my rejected suggestions are laughably bad.)

Interesting stories, hmm… Well, Written on Your Skin was named before it was written, and my agent floated the concern that the title conjured an erotic romance rather than a historical. I occasionally wonder if this is why WOYS ended up being even hotter than BBYT — I “wrote to the title”, as it were.

Then again, when a friend of mine heard the title, she said, “Rethink that. It sounds like it’s about a serial killer.”

Ah, well. You can’t win ‘em all.

Yes, you can, Meredith. Your gorgeous books will win readers and influence aspiring writers! Congratulations on the book release. I’m getting off my bum to the bookstore this minute!

Orbitz was a drink introduced in 1996.  It didn’t take and disappeared from the shelves soon thereafter.  I swear I’ve never seen one in real life.  Now take a good look at the bottle on the left, then read the below snippet from my unfinished SF romance masterpiece:

On the further side of the terrace, a table had been set up for him, under a gazebo tent, with flowers and plates of canapes that were more structurally complex than most sentient creatures. He filled two glasses from a pitcher of spright-of-day, a clear libation with suspended, pearl-sized bubbles of sunfruit juice. He took one glass in hand and drank out of it. The other one he left on the white tablecloth.

She was paralyzed, her dolce-dimmed mind failing to interpret his intentions.

He glanced at her. He seemed amused. “Would you prefer something stronger? I have wine and”—he picked up the placard next to a carafe of purple-black tipple and read—“ ‘Guaranteed Good Time. Our version of this classic party favorite is made with premium black vodka, triple distilled sweetwater brandy, lilyplum tonic, and pompear fizz.’”

She approached the table and drank from the glass of spright-of-day. A bubble of golden sunfruit juice burst on her tongue, sharp and bright.

Wouldn’t you know?  They are drinking Orbitz!  The future has truly already come and gone. 

In other news, PRIVATE ARRANGEMENTS is out on audio.  You can find it on CDs and cassettes here, and as a download here.  And isn’t the cover just absolutely gorgeous?  Sigh.